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On lohud.com

The chances are always good that you will run into a few politicians during happy hour at one of the many saloons in White Plains.

The bars are filled with party gossips talking shop, celebrating triumphs and nursing wounds.

Last Thursday night at the crowded, dimly lit Hudson Grille, Reginald LaFayette, the boss of the Democratic Party and co-commissioner of the Board of Elections, silently slipped past my crowd and out the door. Word had it that Mark Weingarten was there, too.

Weingarten is one of the “super lawyers” of DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise & Wiederkehr, arguably the most powerful law firm in Westchester and most certainly a prime mover behind the county’s biggest real estate deals. The firm contributes thousands and thousands of dollars to political candidates — among them Noam Bramson, the Democratic mayor of New Rochelle who 19 days ago was soundly defeated in a bid for county executive.

Bramson did poorly in his home city, but when he returned to his mayoral duties after the election his popularity plummeted even further because of his continued support for a project to develop some real estate on the waterfront. The Echo Bay project, which was proposed by the controversial Forest City Ratner group and fronted by Weingarten’s law firm, has inspired so much public hatred that Bramson became the political equivalent of Frankenstein’s monster flailing in a burning windmill.

Adam Bradley, the erstwhile mayor of White Plains, probably knows better than anybody how swiftly fortunes can turn against elected officials. Bradley was at the Hudson Grille on Thursday where much of the discussion centered on Bramson and how he managed to lose so decisively to Rob Astorino—despite having a nearly 2-to-1 voter-enrollment advantage.

Much of this was treading on old ground.

But one element that was largely underestimated during the campaign (at least by me) was the size and importance of the New Rochelle protest against Echo Bay. The opposition to the project was not limited to partisan “Noam-haters,” but included a well-organized, rational contingent of good-government types, many of whom were Democrats and past supporters of Bramson.

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The combination was potent. In fact, the effort to foil Bramson’s plan for Echo Bay was reminiscent of other Queen City citizen protests that effectively doomed controversial projects such as the outsized proposals to build high-rises on Davids Island and the pitch for an Ikea furniture store that would’ve only been possible by obliterating an entire neighborhood through eminent domain.

Bradley, who now hosts a talk show on WVOX radio in New Rochelle, said that Bramson was boxed into a no-win situation with Echo Bay. Sticking to it in the face of public outcry was fatal. But backing away could potentially make him look weak, even if it were the right thing to do.

And unexpectedly that’s exactly what he did Friday — he backed away.

According to staff writer Ned Rauch, the mayor conceded that he didn’t have support on the city council to push the project forward. Forest City will try to salvage the project at a meeting this week, but for now the chances look slim.

For years, it was assumed that he was being groomed to eventually replace his mentor, Rep. Nita Lowey who has been in office since 1988. Because of realignment, Bramson no longer resides in the 18th CD, but living in-district is not a requirement for congressional candidates.

So that’s not his problem. His problem is overcoming two setbacks — the county executive’s race and Echo Bay.

Lowey, who is 76 years old, is fully expected to run in 2014. She’ll likely win, too.

After that, though, it’s anybody’s guess what she will decide to do.

What is certain is that Bramson is no longer an automatic candidate for Congress. The woods are full of Democrats who want Lowey’s job.

And all of them will be shoved aside if and when Chelsea Clinton satisfies the rumor mongers who have long insisted that she harbors ambitions to run for Aunt Nita’s seat in the 18th, which happens to include Chappaqua where her parents live.

Imagine the exquisite weirdness if, say, Chelsea ran for Congress in 2016, the same year her mother is expected to run for president.

Bramson is still a young man. He can make a comeback. But for now his progress is stalled, stuck like a duck in the low-tide mud of Echo Bay.